‘Bigot’ slashes Muslim cabby

A crazed film student who recently embedded with Marines in Afghanistan is accused of a drunken, hate-fueled attack on a Muslim cabby in Midtown — further heightening tensions in a city already gripped by the Ground Zero mosque controversy.

Michael Enright, 21, of upstate Brewster, asked his victim if he was a Muslim and exchanged pleasantries in Arabic before going berserk and slashing the driver’s neck and face through the taxi’s partition, police said.

He has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime for the attack, in which he allegedly shouted, “This is a checkpoint, motherf- – -ker! I have to put you down!”

Ellis Kaplan

VICTIM: A badly wounded Ahmed Sharif, at the hospital and yesterday at home in Queens with three of his kids. “Before yesterday, I never felt like I didn’t belong here,” the Bangladeshi native said.

AP

Michael Enright, right, confers with his attorney Jason Martin, during his arraignment.

Cabby Ahmed Sharif, a Bangladeshi immigrant, said anger over the proposed Park Place mosque may have played a role in the horrifying attack.

“I know many people are upset. I didn’t support the mosque at Ground Zero, either,” the Jamaica, Queens, resident said.

“I’ve lived in this country for 35 years. I’ve worked hard. This country has helped me a lot. But before yesterday, I never felt like I didn’t belong here.

“I feel very sad,” Sharif, 43, continued. “I have been driving a taxi more than 15 years. All my four kids were born here. I never feel this hopeless and insecure before.

“Right now, the public sentiment is very serious. All drivers should be more careful.”

Enright — whose alcoholism has lead to several minor brushes with the NYPD — returned to the United States in May after five weeks in Helmand Province filming the Marines.

He shot film projects for Intersections International, a nonprofit group that supports the mosque and “promotes interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural cooperation, specifically with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

The group sent its sympathies to the cabby yesterday. The attack “runs counter to everything we stand for and is shocking,” it said in a statement.

Enright hailed Sharif’s cab at around 6 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of Second Avenue and East 24th Street, an area packed with bars frequented by fellow students from the School of Visual Arts.

As they headed uptown, the suspect — who planned to graduate with honors next May and was filming overseas for his senior thesis — began chatting with Sharif.

“As-salaam alaikum,” Enright said — an Arabic greeting that means, “Peace be upon you.”

The cops didn’t buy it, and hauled him to Bellevue Hospital because he was too drunk to be processed.

Enright underwent a psychological evaluation, police said.

“If the cut had been any longer or deeper, [Sharif] would have been dead,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney James Zaleta said at Enright’s arraignment.

Enright, who has prior arrests for disorderly conduct and underage drinking, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder as a hate crime and other charges.

His lawyer, Jason Martin, told Judge ShawnDya Simpson, “He’s terrified and shocked at the allegations. He’s just trying to cope right now.”

Enright was held without bail.

Sharif was treated at Bellevue and released early yesterday.

“The man I picked up and this man [who stabbed me] were two different men. So much anger and hatred,” Sharif said. “I don’t understand. This man never met me, and he hated me.”

The shaken-up cabby accepted Mayor Bloomberg’s invitation to meet him at City Hall today.

“This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe, no matter what God we may pray to,” Bloomberg said.

Gov. Paterson also weighed in, saying, “The potential for this kind of violence is one of the reasons why I have called publicly for a respectful and unifying conversation about the Park51 [mosque] project.

“We cannot and will not allow bias and ignorance to infect our communities and deny our hardworking, innocent residents the respect they deserve.”

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the assailant had an empty bottle of Scotch and four notebooks in his bag recovered by police at the scene of the slashing near East 42nd Street. A preliminary review of one notebook showed that Mr. Enright wrote about time he spent as a videographer in Afghanistan where he spent several weeks embedded with Marines, Mr. Kelly said.

Investigators will study the journals “in depth” once a search warrant is obtained, he said. Police found Mr. Enright sprawled out and intoxicated near the taxi in which he allegedly slashed Mr. Sharif on his face, neck and arm, Mr. Kelly said, and the suspect made several statements to police after his arrest.

“You’re violating my constitutional rights,” Mr. Enright screamed, according to Mr. Kelly. He told detectives he was Jewish, Mr. Kelly said, even though Mr. Enright is not Jewish.

A law-enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Mr. Enright, who hails from Brewster, N.Y., repeatedly told arresting officers: “I’m a patriot.”

~It is hate to attempt a murder and fail and then claim you are Jewish. If he had killed the Muslim cabbie he might have had a chance, but he left too much evidence.

One has to ask, “How does this guy get in with the Marines to film in the hottest area of Afghanistan?” You think he was in tight with the Commandant or a Jew in the media?

Victim: “Of course it was for my religion.” Suspect Michael Enright falsely claimed he was Jewish when arrested.

Of course since this occurred we have seen no evidence that he was not of Jewish descent. In fact we never saw any parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, NOBODY! Most people would be hesitant to say they were Jews if they wanted to be believed, if not all.

A Jew slashes a Muslims face in a cab…. Jews say he isn’t Jewish, who benefits?

The Ugly Truthers took this one and ran with it like they did with Zimmerman, like they did with Loughner, like they did with Breivik and like they will do with every one of these operations because we refuse to take back our media from these Satanic Jew bastards to make sure out neighbors get the truth.

What classifies as being a jew or Jewish? There are Rabbi’s who don’t believe in God, Jews who are related to Ashkenazi’s who don’t believe in God or religion, there are Satanist Jews, Black Jews who claim they are racial Jews, Black Jews and Jews of all kinds who aren’t related to Judah in any way, shape or form or even Jews. Its something that needs to be opened up and dumped out on the sidewalk for all to see.

Jews claim to be the pure offspring of Judah all the way back to Adam. Its time to have Jews define what a Jew is and if it is hypocrisy then it is what it is.